Live Lights On!

What Is My Intention For Today?

The last step in the check-in helps you focus your day and ultimately create the business and life you strive for.  Setting a daily intention is powerful and as with all repetitive habits, enforces manifestation of the future you design.

Intention statements can begin with “I intend to….” and include mini-steps and bridge plans towards your end goal.  Not only do these statements refocus and remind you where you’re going, they can help bring awareness of improvements, items you’d like to work on, talents to build upon.  Look over the list below to begin inspiration, then tailor your daily intentions towards yourself and your business.

- “Today I intend to directly communicate with Sarah my goals for this project.”

- “My intention today is to have fun and find amusement while I make cold calls.”

- “Today will find me completing my business plan with a smile on my face.”

- “I intend to organize and de-clutter my paperwork.”

- “I will start this day with three good ideas to present to my client.”

- “This day I intend to be relaxed as I give my presentation and exude confidence  as I answer questions.”

- “My intention this day is to earn $300 and know my services are valuable.”

What Am I Grateful For?

Thanksgiving is a couple weeks behind us, but the spirit of gratitude rides on through the holidays.  For those who check-in daily, being grateful lasts all year long.  In our blog series on the check-in process, we look at gratitude.

Clarity frequently reminds clients of a very simple statement, “Energy attracts like energy. So, in your thoughts, words, and actions, be very clear about what you want to attract into your life.”  Being grateful everyday keeps you in that vibration you wish to attract. Finding reasons to be thankful everyday brings your vision into focus more quickly and clearly.  Intention is everything in our process.  Set your intention to be grateful and stay above the line in thoughts, words, and deeds.

What Is My State Of Mind, Body, Spirit?

What Worked And What Didn’t?

After tuning in to what is different, change the focus to nonjudgmental evaluation. The Clarity check-in process asks, “What worked and what didn’t work?”  This question helps focus on your accomplishments with an eye towards discernment. It assists with self-reflection.

Focusing only on facts, this step asks for an honest evaluation of your performance. Giving equal attention to both sides of the effectiveness coin permits a more balanced and informed evaluation.  In other words, celebrate what worked well, but don’t dwell on what didn’t work.  Name them both, then take away the information that will help you be more effective in your business.  Celebrate your initiative and ability to honestly look and reflect.  Now you know and now you can continue down the river.

By asking what worked and what didn’t, you place awareness on effectiveness.  Stay curious and look for information that will make your business practices run more smoothly.

What’s Different?

Clarity’s daily check-in process is deliberate and intentional.  Its purpose is to keep you in flow with staying above the line and looking ahead towards your vision.  The very first question in a series of five is, “What’s Different?”

Every moment of life contains change.  Checking in with difference keeps you updated on where you stand with change and alerts you to possibilities.  Sometimes the normal rigmarole of daily life can slip into auto pilot and helpful nuances can be missed.  Being present enough to notice differences keeps the acceleration in flow and ensures that synchronicity can find its way to your attention.

Where is Shadow Behavior?

Light and Shadow Patterns

October’s festive claim to fame is the Halloween season.  We get the whole month to build up anticipation and excitement of costumes, candy, and socializing. October also offers a rapid change in weather as the heat descends into a cool, crisp chilliness. A charge of mystery fills the air. Between the darker, mysterious side of Halloween and the inner chill of plunging temperatures, October is an apt month to discuss shadow and shadow behaviors.

Think back to all those literature classes of education past. Theme after theme tells us humans struggle. Do you remember the types of conflict your high school lit teacher covered; man vs. man, man vs. self, and man vs. nature? Of these three, only man vs. self is considered an internal conflict. Internal conflict is when a character comes across new information that challenges his/her personal understanding. A ripple in the status quo. How the character chooses to respond shows ability for personal growth. The ever-present shadow keeps conflict generating and allows opportunity for personal growth to be readily available.  Those who deny growth and cling to the diminishing familiar way of thinking, could be called tragic characters.  The shadow is always with us, no human is exempt.

Most people who enter the Clarity process have a higher and more readily accessible level of awareness.  They are ready to look at their shadow behavior knowing it will boost a faster acceleration towards their vision.  Recognizing shadow brings clarity.

As you go through this time, also keep in mind which above the line, lights-on behaviors work best in your river’s journey.

Recognizing Your Shadow

During our well-known retreat, Get Clarity for Life and Work, we walk our clients through a process to identify their shadow behavior.  Most participants can readily name their shadow and sometimes have trouble pinpointing just one.  What great self-awareness. Shadow behavior is energy that blocks your progress. Fear is a big one and breeds anxiety, guilt, attachment, doubt, and negative self beliefs. When digging out your shadowy side in order to shine light upon it, you can more easily find it by asking these questions:

What is Hidden?  By definition, a shadow is dark and can easily tuck away that which you wish to hide. Take an honest look at what you’re free and open about, then contrast it to what you hope nobody finds out. What we try to hide from others derives from shadow.

What Do I Criticize In Others?  The perfect flow of life allows for mirrors to pop up when we need some self-realization assistance. Likely, where you find fault in others, is where you have a shadow in yourself. Observe and take note of what flavor your criticism comes in. If you notice a repeat flavor, or if you continually criticize the same thing, you have found your link to shadow. Great detective work!

When Do Guilt and Shame Show Up? Guilt and shame are shadow feelings the can be great big indicators to where your shadow may reside. Look closely to where any of these type feelings come from, and you’ll be closer to finding more of your shadow.

Living in the Light

Much of the Clarity focus and main message remains steady.  Living above the line in thoughts, words, and actions changes our clients’ lives.  In the Get Clarity for Life and Work retreat, we help clients identify their shadow behavior and give them resources to bring it back into the light.  Living Lights On!  Remaining in the light comes with many benefits for both careers and the workplace.

Improved Relations  Between management, coworkers, and clients, relations can become stronger and more productive when all involved surf the positive waves of energy.  Trust increases and support solidifies.  Even disagreements can be ironed out smoothly when everyone cares enough to stay above the line in how they communicate and relate to one another.

Better Health   Both emotional health and physical health shine when the workplace is a positive one.  Reductions in stress, illness, and apathy are notably present.

Infectious  A genuine positive outlook spreads in an instant.  Focus on the desired outcome in the spirit of support, celebration, and camaraderie. Business owners, managers, team leaders, and strong coworkers know the effects of participating in a negative conversation, blame, or in unproductive gossip.  The energy level goes immediately down.  Therefore, becoming a bastion of positive outlook is essential for a progressive business model.

Better Business  Others are drawn to positive people like a magnet.  Building a career and workplace conducive to posivity attracts both talented employees and clients.  Because trust and support come from the light and are above the line, stronger loyalties and bonds coalesce.  Good employee retention and profits ensue. Only good comes from building and maintaining an environment filled with light.

Human Energy Model

The term energy usually brings to mind power companies and electrical outlets.  When we refer to energy, we mean the invisible force emanating in and from all living things.  This may be a difficult understanding and stretch for many people to reach.  Cells broken down to their smallest parts are really little particles of light or energy.  There is actually nothing solid about them.  Einstein as well as many subsequent researchers experimented on these particles.  Study after study proved these little bits of light can be controlled.  Whatever hypothesis researchers intended during specified studies, particles conformed.  A change in the hypothesis caused a matching change in particle behavior.  Understanding basic units of cellular energy can help us understand energy patterns in our lives.

Michelle, a former teacher, recalls a quote by Dr. Haim Ginott she learned in college, “I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or de-humanized.”  Combined with the Clarity process, Michelle realizes Dr. Ginott is speaking to personal energy fields.  A teacher’s field is the major driving force in the classroom and affects all students who enter the room.   “It’s so true, but the opposite is also true.“ Michelle explains, “When students collectively feel a certain emotion, it rubs off on me.”  She goes on to describe a school dance that was cancelled.  Collective student disappointment affected the lessons that day and enthusiasm was hard to come by.  Both teacher and student energy fields play with each other and cause changes within each.

As the owner of 3DL Innovatia, Larry has the opportunity to visit many clients in their homes.  Troubleshooting and fixing phone lines is his profession, but tuning into the energy fields of homeowners is his accidental talent. Both Larry’s previous training as a hypnotist and his natural ability to observe subtleties has provided him insights to human behavior.  “I can tell if a client will be satisfied with their phone service and easy to get along with based on how their dog behaves,” he says, “If a dog is friendly and easy going, generally the owner is too.”  He continues, “But, if the dog barks longer than normal or aggressively follows me around, I’ve learned the owner will probably be unhappy with the service received and the problem will take longer to fix.”  Larry understands the influence of energy and how energy fields affect each other.  Dog owners’ personal energy fields affect the fields of their pets.

The human energy model is built to both soak up and give off.  By putting our awareness towards observation, we can learn a lot of what is going on.  Observe behaviors, words, and deeds of others to see what may be influencing your own field.  More importantly turn those keen observation skills inward.  Notice your own thoughts and actions as you move through the day.  Wonder if any unpleasantries belong to you or come from another field.